“That’s so,” said Steve, “but I reckon we’re fightin’ hard somewhere ’bout the Chickahominy. Gawd knows we fought there in ’62 like lions of the field! Did I ever tell you about Savage Station, ’n’ a mountain o’ dirt ’n’ stuff the Yanks had prevaricated the railroad with—’n’ how we cleared it away—me ’n’ an artilleryman of Kemper’s ’n’ some others—so that what we called the railroad gun could pass—” “Yes, you’ve told it,” said Tom, “but tell it again.” “’N’ the railroad gun—that was a siege-piece on a flatcar, Miss Christianna—come a-hawkin’ ’n’ a-steamin’ up ’n’ I ’n’ the others piled on. Gawd! it was sunset ’n’ the woods like black coal ag’in’ it ... ’n’ we came on the railroad bridge ’n’ the Yanks began to shell us.” Steve shivered. “Them shells played on that gun like the rain on Old Gray Rock up there; ’n’ jest like Old Gray Rock we looked at ’em ’n’ said, ‘Play away!’—’n’ we rumbled ’n’ roared off the bridge, ’n’ got into position on top of an embankment, ’n’ three batteries begun to shell us, ’n’ we shelled back; ’n’ those of us who weren’t at the guns, we took off our hats ’n’ waved ’n’ hurrahed—” “If there ain’t any top to truth,” said Sairy, _sotto voce_, “neither air there any bottom to lyin’.” “’N’ I reckon we saved the day for General Magruder! The artilleryman was a cowardly kind of fellow, ’n’ he left us pretty soon, but the rest of us—Gawd! we ’n’ that railroad gun did the business! Naw,” said Steve mournfully, “they may think they’re fightin’ hard down ’roun’ Richmond, but it ain’t like it used to be! We ain’t never goin’ to see fightin’ ag’in like what we fought in ’62. The best men in this here war air dead or disabled.—Of course, of course, Mrs. Cole, thar air exceptions!” “A man from Lynchburg passed this way yesterday,” said Sairy. “He was tellin’ us that Crook and Averell air certainly goin’ to join Hunter at Staunton an’ that Lynchburg’s right uneasy. He said there was a feelin’ in the air that this end of the Valley wasn’t going to be spared much longer. He said that General Smith at Lexington told him that the storm was comin’ this way, and in that case Thunder Run might hear some thunder that wasn’t of the Lord’s manufacturing! Of course, if we do,” said Sairy, “we’ll have the benefit of your experience an’ advice an’ aid.” Christianna spoke in her drawling voice. “Mother says there’s talk of maybe havin’ to move the hospital. She says they all say Hunter’s one of the worst. He’s one of the burnin’ kind, an’ he’s got a lot of men who can’t understand what you say to ’em—Germans.” “I think we ought to be organizing a Home Guard,” said Tom. “There’s your grandpap, Christianna, and the doctor and Charley Key and the boy at the sawmill—” “An’ Steve,” said Sairy.